Chester 0-2 Tranmere Rovers

Ex-Solihull boss Marcus Bignot joined Chester in September 2017, five months after being sacked by Grimsby

Chester have been relegated from the National League with four matches still to play following a home defeat by neighbours Tranmere.

Rovers, by contrast, kept their play-off semi-final hopes on track as goals from Andy Cook and James Norwood sent Micky Mellon's side up to fourth, just a point adrift of automatic qualification through to the semi-finals with two games in hand.

Rovers made a promising start and Norwood saw a header come back off the crossbar just eight minutes into the contest.

But Tranmere did go ahead in first-half stoppage time when Jeff Hughes' cross picked out Cook and he made no mistake in heading past Andy Firth.

Norwood made the game safe in the 64th minute when he latched onto a ball from the back to round Firth and roll the ball into the net.

The loss signalled the imminent end of a five-year stay in the fifth tier for Chester, whose manager Marcus Bignot is to leave the club at the end of the season.

Report supplied by Press Association.

Chester manager Marcus Bignot told BBC Radio Merseyside:

"Obviously it's a sad day for the football club, but many clubs have experienced relegation and bounced back.

"The important thing now is how the football club is going to bounce back from this.

"You look at these last three months, we've lost a CEO, two chairmen, four directors, (and) nine contracted players we've had to move out.

"Today we're facing Tranmere, we're can't lose and half the team aren't coming out of the first-team budget.

"We were competitive in large parts of that game but ultimately, the club, where we are, relegation was inevitable."